Alright this was my favorite episode yet. I love Suzuka so seeing it accurately represented was great. As for the racing accuracy, everything they were saying was correct, but the visual depiction of wet weather tires vs slicks was pretty lacking.
If the track was really that wet at the start of the race, that 3rd place car on wets should have easily gotten past the two Belsorisso drivers. Like, maybe even before the esses. Having them all stay in line for the entire first lap was a little immersion breaking. When it's wet out you tend to get drivers going all over the track hunting for any extra grip they can find, and drivers on slicks will be spinning their rears on corner exit constantly.
That said, everything else was great. I loved the detail about drivers on wets pulling off the line to cool their tires in the wet parts of the track.
The story this episode was great. I like that Kouya's trauma wasn't so easy to overcome and that he still has a lot to work through. And for some fun trivia, it's fitting that the episode after they talk about Hunt and Lauda, Haruka retires from a wet weather race. In the 1976 season's final race, Lauda retired from the Japanese GP because of how terrible the weather was, giving Hunt the championship.
Can't wait to see where we go with this next week!